The present invention relates to a tablet of aluminum-iron obtained by automization of powders, with the use of water and similar substances, so that such tablet can be used as an alloy element for aluminum.
The invention also relates to a method of producing tablets formed by aluminum-iron alloys which contains preferably 90% of iron and 10% of aluminum, by metallurgical fusion process and subsequent automization of metals with water jets and the like.
The tablet is originated from iron aluminum powder of 90%–10% following compaction, to be utilized as an alloy element for industry.
One of the most widely used forms of addition of alloy elements to metallic baths of aluminum are elements which contain an alloy, mainly in the form of tablets or briquettes. In commercial processes the aluminum powders are mixed to powders of the alloy elements to be added, such as iron, chrome, titanium, copper, manganese, nickel, etc. This mixture is subjected to shaping by pressing, that basically defines the density and resistance to green. In addition to this physical characteristics, the tablets shall have also a good performance with regard to dissolution of the alloy element. In other words, they should have a good yield and an adequate chemical composition in accordance with specific standards of customers.
Companies around the world produce some types of tablets with the use of elementary powder mixtures. It has been noted that the maximum limit of the alloy element remains around 75–85%. If on the one hand a customer purchasing the tablet is willing the tablet to be formed only by the alloy element, on the other hand there is no need for using the aluminum powder in order to guarantee a minium of compressibility and resistance to the green. Besides, it seems that there is a relationship between the aluminum quantity in the tablet and the dissolution of the alloy element as disclosed for example in a paper presented to the Congress of Aluminum Brazilian Association in 2000 in which the results of studies are presented with respect to the MnAl tablets and their dissolution in aluminum baths.
Several sources are known which disclose manufacture of tablets of the alloy elements. These sources include U.S. Pat. No. 4,171,275, an aluminum rule of the Aluminum Association and a recently published article by the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society. A patent issued in 1979 describes the manufacture of briquets of AL—Mn produced by compacting of mixtures containing 77% in manganese mass.